Wednesday, February 13, 2013

Guest Review - - The Garden Intrigue

The Garden Intrigue

By Lauren Willig

Publisher: NAL Trade
(Reprint of hardcover)

Release Date:
December 31, 2012

Emma Delgardie is a
young American widow who has charmed the most socially prominent people in
Paris with her vivacity and “naturalness.” Emma eloped at fifteen with an older
Frenchman, resulting in a temporary estrangement from her family. Hortense
Beauharnais, a friend from their days at Madam Campan’s School for Young
Ladies, and her mother, the wife of Napoleon Bonaparte, stood by Emma when her
own family did not. Emma has made Paris her home since she was widowed at
nineteen. The fashionable world sees her as a merry widow, unaware of the grief
that lies below the polished surface.

Augustus Whittlesby
is a poet, quite a bad poet. He is a fixture at court, proclaiming his
execrable verse and parading his poetic temperament to the amusement and
sometimes outright mockery of the crowd. What few know is that Whittlesby is
actually an agent of the Crown who has been using his poetry to pass on
information he has gathered to none other than the Pink Carnation (Jane
Wooliston). There is nothing fake about the feelings he has developed for Jane,
and after ten years, he has grown weary of the role he’s forced to play. But
his superiors have learned that Napoleon, with a new weapon in his possession,
is planning an invasion of England, and Whittlesby is their best bet for
garnering information about Napoleon’s plan. His orders are to find a way to
attend the gathering at Malmaison, Napoleon’s summer home, where the secret
weapon is to be displayed to a select company.

Emma, who is
considered almost family by the Bonapartes, is charged with creating a masque,
significantly one with a nautical theme, for the gathering at Malmaison. Whittlesby
realizes that Emma is his best means of securing an invitation to Malmaison and
offers his services as collaborator on the masque. Emma rejects his offer
initially but seizes on it when a visiting relative reveals that her family expects
her to return to New York, a plan he has expedited by booking her passage on
the ship on which he is returning. As they spend time together, Emma and
Whittlesby begin to discover the person behind the public personae each has
adopted. The two don’t so much fall into
love as grow into it in a gradual blooming with a few frost warnings along the
way to threaten the budding relationship.

Meanwhile, in the
framing contemporary story, Eloise Kelly continues her research and tries to
comfort her boyfriend Colin Selwick in his dismay over the infestation of a
film crew at Selwick Hall. Add the presence of Colin’s stepfather, Colin’s ex,
Colin’s sister, and Colin’s sister’s ex, and the complications compound. From
Eloise’s perspective, the greatest complication is the fact that her fellowship
is running out, she has a tempting job offer at “the other Cambridge,” and she
has to make a decision about whether to stay in England or to return to the
United States, whether to trust she and Colin have a future or to put her
career in academia first.

This is the ninth
book in Willig’s Pink Carnation series, and it’s another winner. The historical
setting is France at the time Napoleon is declared emperor. Bits of American
history are interwoven into the story. Emma is the niece of James Monroe and
accompanies him and his family to Paris where he is American envoy in 1794.
Robert Fulton, inventor of the steamboat, is also inventor of the weapon that
could give Napoleon the means of invading England. The theme of the masque/masks
is skillfully employed. The emphasis on words—poetry, epistles, notes—and what
words reveal and conceal adds interest and complexity.

For me, the
characters are the most important part of any story, and these characters are a
delight. Emma seems to be all frivolity and sparkle, but this image is undercut
by her very real grief over the death of a husband she loved but was just
beginning to know and by her knowledge of engineering and her commitment to
realizing her husband’s dream. The deception that Whittlesby has carried out
for over a decade requires intelligence, courage, and considerable ability to
act and to rhyme. The reader also discovers a few intriguing tidbits about Jane
Wooliston.

If you are a fan of
the series, you definitely don’t want to miss The Garden Intrigue. It follows fast on The Orchid Affair, but it is substantially lighter in tone. There
is a rich vein of humor in this one, but it also has its heart-twisting
moments. If you have yet to read Willig, I highly recommend her books. The core
story works well as a standalone, but readers new to the series may have
questions about the characters in the frame story. As for me, I already have The Passion of the Purple Plumeria
(August 26) starred on my book calendar. I have an abiding weakness for
alliteration and love the sound of “plumeria,” and so the title won my heart.
That was before I knew that the new book will be about Miss Gwen, the
redoubtable companion of Jane Wooliston. Now I’m practically salivating at the
thought of it.

I am a fan of Lauren Willig and am certainly looking forward to reading this novel. After living in Paris for a number of years, I am a huge fan of French history and this novel sounds like it will be a fascinating read!!

I have several books in this series, but have yet to read them. I have a feeling once I start, I will want to work my way through them without a break. Thanks for an informative review that has shown me how much I need to read this series.

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